How to write an impact statement for ageing research

Many researchers are grappling with how to write an effective impact statement for research applications. And judging by some of the applications KT-EQUAL investigators have seen, many impact statements are poor (e.g. wildly over ambitious). I thought it would be useful to put together a guide on how to write better impact statements. It will have a bias towards research which falls within the EPSRC remit and which addresses older people and people with a disability. I hope this should also create more impact in the long term, rather than being a blagger’s guide!

Over the next few months I intend to create links from this document to case studies showing how KT-EQUAL investigators and others have created impact. The research councils already provide some outline guidance on Completing the Pathways to Impact document, and EPSRC provide some specific advice on impact.

This is how I’ve gone about writing impact statements in the past:

What could the research be used for?

Why not start by brainstorming all the possible uses for the research you want to do. Start to think very broadly and think long and short term, but always stemming from your research. Later you’ll need to get more realistic about what can really be achieved. Think about the uses of the research in different ways:

• What new knowledge is being developed which might have uses beyond your immediate research project?
• What products might be developed which could be commercialised via industry, spin-out companies, patent royalties to create economic impact through wealth generation?
• What products, services or procedures might you develop which could have economic impact by making the public sector (e.g. NHS, local government), third sector (e.g. charities) or industry more efficient?
• How can the research contribute towards evidence-based policy-making, influencing policies, regulation and legislation locally, nationally or internationally?
• How can your research transform professional practice for those working with older people?
• How will your research improve the health and quality of the lives of older people, those with a disability, their careers and families?
• How is the research going to develop the skills of people e.g. the researchers on the grant?

Don’t forget that it doesn’t just have to be about making money and the mediatisation or symptomatic treatment of health problems. Research councils also permit impacts about Enhancing cultural enrichment – a pompous way of saying having fun or doing interesting things!

Have I forgotten any categories? Please leave a comment at the bottom if I have.

Who could use the research?

You could now carry on brainstorming but thinking of beneficiaries rather than uses for the research. Beneficiaries might include:

• Older people
• People with a disability
• Those who care for others
• Professionals who work with older people and those with a disability
• Other researchers
• Industry who produce products and services in the area of your research
• Public sector organisations and charities who commission and/or provide services for older people and those with a disability

You might also want to think of broader impacts on the general public, for example addressing issues of social cohesion.

Tips on getting impact with industry with ageing research.

Have I forgotten key beneficiaries? Please leave a comment if I have.

What agendas will the research impact upon?

Governments and funders have agendas such as the ageing population which they want to address in research projects. Directly addressing these issues and parroting the language used in relevant documents is a powerful technique. For example, EPSRC has Challenge Themes you should read these and try and address one or more of these if possible.

Consult others

There are likely to be impacts and uses for your research that you haven’t envisaged, so it is vital you talk to others. In the first instance this might be colleagues, but it is important that stakeholders (older people, organisations representing older people, industry etc) are involved in these conversations. By discussing what uses the research might have, you also start to open up a conversation about how these stakeholders might support getting impact from the research findings. Achieving impact from research about the ageing population is nearly almost always going to require working with outside organisations.

There are many pitfalls in working with users and stakeholders, in the future I’ll pen some words about this and get some case studies.

How to get impact

For each of the possible impacts you have brainstormed, you could think about how that impact is going to be achieved. This is also a good starting point for getting realistic about what can be done. An impact statement needs to have a set of defined work items (seminars, meeting to liaise with companies, proposing work items for standards committees etc, etc). It needs to be clearly say:

• What you plan to do and what you hope this will achieve?
• Why this is an effective way of getting impact?
• When are you going to do it?
• Who is going to do the work working with which external organisations?
• How much will it cost?

One complication with impact statement is that it is easy to produce actions “we will talk to 30 companies about the new widget X” but there is no guarantee that these actions will result in impact (e.g. a company commercialising the widget). Don’t worry, impact statements naturally have actions for which it is impossible to know for certain if it will achieve long term impact. The important thing is to have a set of actions which are likely to work and follow best practice.

A personal plea from an ex-media fellow, don’t forget that public engagement is a valid and important way of gaining impact – increasing public engagement in science, economic and societal issues. As ageing research often involves working with older people, careers and professionals, you need to consider carefully how the groups of people you worked with can directly gain from your research.

When to get impact

It is easy to fall into the trap of believing that engaging with others and creating impact only happens at the end of the project once the research is complete. By setting up ways you can communicate with stakeholders throughout the project (during proposal development through to the end of the research), it is more likely your research will create something that stakeholders find useful and will exploit with you at the end.

Intellectual property rights (IPR)

You need to take advice from your organisation about IPR. There can be tensions and conflicts between yourself and collaborating organisations, and between being open and publishing research findings and the need for commercial confidentiality to allow exploitation. The earlier you have discussion about these issues with yourself and collaborators, the better.

General hints

Research council applications have a separate Academic Beneficiaries section so some of the impact ideas you dream up will be better in that part of the application. You need to describe your track record in knowledge exchange and to explain the resources required. Getting impact normally requires sustained effort over many years, so make sure you allow enough time and resources to make it work.

EPSRC have a list of hints, which include:

• Think ‘outside the box’ and be creative and innovative.
• But be realistic and don’t over-egg the pudding.
• Avoid sentences using the phrase ‘the usual…’.
• Don’t waffle – only use as much of the two sides as you need.

One of the best hints is to look at the review criteria. The new responsive mode reviewer forms have two boxes relevant to Impact:

Importance: Please comment on the national importance over a 10 to 50 year time frame in relation to other research in the area and how the proposal demonstrates how the research would underpin or contribute to:

• Other research areas
• Societal challenges (including EPSRC challenge themes)
• The success of the UK economy
• Emerging Industry

and

Impact: Please comment on the pathway to impact identified for this work particularly:

• How complete and realistic are the impacts identified for this work
• The effectiveness of the activities identified to help realise these impacts, including the resources requested for this purpose
• The relevance and appropriateness of any beneficiaries or collaborators

You need to make sure your impact statement is written in such a way as to enable reviewers to answer these questions positively.

Finally

Have you any hints on writing impact statements? Or ideas of case studies which would be useful? Please comment below.